In the days before the internet and social media…. See previous post #magicalwriting
L’Oiseau Bleu Jeu Magnetique: Magnetic fortune telling board game.
We were delighted to find this addition to our divination and fortune telling collection recently. We found this description online -
Paris: Saussine, 1865-1878.
Magnetic fortune telling board game. Constructed of painted wood and cardboard. A self-contained game in the form of a box with a painted glass and wood top with applied chromolithograph decoration, the magnetic blue bird moves beneath the window when a card and bone spinner with a metallic element is spun above it. The spinner has various fortune subjects written on it in French to “ask” the blue bird about. Once the bird stops spinning, its beak will be pointed at one of eight small circular lidded boxes affixed to the game surface. Once opened, the boxes contain tiny circular handwritten paper “fortunes” which can be interpreted according to the original question. An object that clearly shows the passage of time, but remains nevertheless very pretty and functional. Saussine was a prolific creator of board games and novelty toys, racing games, strategy games, card games and elaborate shadow theatres, most notably exhibiting at the Paris Exposition in 1878. He died in 1896, and the business was continued by his wife and son well into the early 20th century. The chromolithograph image to the lid depicts two rather prosperous looking young people, possibly royalty, (with particular focus on the young lady, who may or not be a princess) being taught the magical mysteries of the Blue Bird by a typically wizardly looking elderly gentleman, and a wise woman. Examples of objects like this are incredibly rare in functional condition and we are delighted to be able to add it to our collection.
A beautiful morning here in Boscastle #beautifulboscastle #boscastle #coldbutsunny
Curtain call. Huge thanks to @jackfawdrytatham and @pollockstoymuseum for this unique collaboration and for putting so much time and energy into the project
Act lV. Dramatic last act! #mwmmodeltheatre #orff
Act III. Soon to be on sale both at the museum and in our online shop #mwmmodeltheatre #mussorgsky
Act 2. It’s finally here! #mwmmodeltheatre #paganini
Guess what arrived today???? #mwmmodeltheatre
And after months of hard work, the exhibition opened tonight. Huge thanks to the whole team at Colchester Castle for having us along for the ride @colchestermuseums #wickedspirits
Go Kate! Go!!! So happy to see her at No1! #katebush
Saying hello to our feathered friends #thebirds
Thank you Jack in the Green for releasing the spirit of summer once more. We’ve missed you these past two years #hastingsjackinthegreen
A sneak peek of a corner of our new exhibition showing the Steffi Grant painting with its original glowing red eyes. It was last seen in the museum in 1996. #steffigrant #artatthemwm
We survived storm Eunice! This was just as it began and then the power went down and is still down. So no phones or wifi and it’s VERY dark at night!
So that’s summer over with then…. #summersover
And what might this be from? It’s a load of old tosh which only picks up in the last five minutes and can anyone tell me the link to Dad’s Army?
In a vain attempt to confound you…. And these 6 seconds are from???
Well I’m not giving up quite yet….. any ideas?
Another clip for the diehards… any ideas? #probablystillnotobscureenough